


The Ramblings of a dying man

by dadams037



Category: The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-09
Updated: 2019-05-09
Packaged: 2020-02-28 23:38:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,167
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18766690
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dadams037/pseuds/dadams037
Summary: Contains Spoilers ; Alternative ending to Endgame. Tony promised not to let his child grow up alone. He wasn't going to let Morgan feel the loneliness he felt.





	The Ramblings of a dying man

The ramblings of a dying man. 

He held one finger up, this is it. This is our 1 in 14 million. ‘I have to get up, I have to get to the glove’. ‘We can’t lose, not again’. Time seemed to slow in that moment, I felt like I had all the time in the world. My thoughts were chaotic; ‘Could I do this? There is no way that I’m surviving this; Pepper, god, Pepper…. I can’t do this, I can’t leave her. I promised her, I told Cap. I told him! I said I’d try, but that protecting my family had to come first. Morgan, my beautiful Morgan. I’ll never get to see her go to prom, graduate, hell I’ll never get to terrorise her first date. But I suppose there’s always Thor for that, he gives a great mean face when he wants to.’  
‘Can I do this? I have to, I have to. What future will they have now that Thanos is here? He’ll destroy everything. I hope she forgives me, I hope they forgive me. Please forgive me.’

‘Decision made; don’t think, just go’. With that I used what little strength I had left and burst straight at Thanos, ‘This is my planet, Mine!’ It was easier than I thought it would be, it felt like the stones were almost calling to me. They wanted me to weld them, the pain was excruciating, it was hard to even think. ‘Almost done, almost there. Think of the future you want. Everyone comes back to now, no other changes. No! Romanov, everyone that we’ve lost comes back. To now. Not back then, now’. Two fingers together, ignore the pain, you can do this. Snap.

“Tony, Tony! God Tony, please open your eyes” There she is, my angel. “Hey Pepper, we do it?” I could see the tears falling down her face, she was trying to hide it but I could tell. We both know what this is. She lowered her head, letting out a sigh of relief. “Yer, Hunny, YOU did it” Raising my hand I lifted her face and meeting her eyes I said what neither of us wanted to hear “I’ve gotta go Potts”. “I know you do, you did it Tony, you can rest now.” I could feel things starting to slide away. “I promised you, I’m so sorry” I couldn’t look at her, too many broken promises. Too many. Looking round I could see everyone; The Cap, Thor, the kid…God even the Racoon was here. She grabbed my face, forced me to look at her. “You did what you had to do, you did it Tony, you can rest now” She is so strong, I never deserved her.  
Peter made his way forward, even after all that he looks like he could run a marathon. I’m too old for this. “Sir, Sir, you did it Sir. I didn’t know what was happening, one minute I was talking to you and then I was in the middle of space and this woman was telling me that I was needed on Earth”

“Kid, your rambling”, “Oh sorry sir”, “Nothing to apologise for kid, glad your back. You’re going to be great, you know that right?” 

“Come on kid, give him some space” Then there he was, the Capt. “Hey Capt, Looks like its me taking one for the team” He flinched away from me. “I never wanted this, it wasn’t supposed to end like this. It was supposed to be me. It should’ve been me” Now I knew that wasn’t true. “It was always supposed to end like this Capt, I have a story to tell you before I go though….. I meet Peggy once” I could see the shock on his face.  
“Yer I know I never told you, she told me that when the time was right I’d know. Give me your hand” He held out his hand and I dropped the last pin, the last device we had for time travel. He was looking at me strangely, he didn’t understand. “She told me that she thought the reason we were always arguing was because in one way we were so similar, that we recognised that in each other, and it reminded us of our greatest failures. Yer, it was a fun conversation……” I couldn’t stop coughing, it hurt so much. But I need to get this out “Do you know what that was?” Seeing the clearly confused face I continued “Our greatest strength is our greatest weakness. For me its this” I said while tapping my head. “I can never shut it off, I can never not think. For you? It’s this” I laid my hand over his heart. “You think everything is your responsibility, that you always have to fight. I couldn’t beat mine, but your gonna beat yours. Your time is done here Capt, your gonna return the stones to the correct places in time and then your gonna keep the last promise you made to your lady. You remember what that was?” I could see it; the hope, the fear and finally the denial. “Dancing, I promised to take her dancing. But Tony, I can’t. I’m needed here…….Plus I can’t change time like that, there’s no way I’d be able to do it” The misery was clear on his face, I’m gonna have to pull out the big guns here.

“We had a long intense natter, me & Peggy about how sometimes its okay to be selfish. That sometimes you have to put yourself first and I couldn’t understand what she meant as when I meet her I was always selfish. I always put myself first. So I looked into her, I looked into her life and do you know what I found?” He shook his head, I had him, I could tell.  
“A week after you went into the ice, she quit. Just woop. Took early retirement, relocated to the middle of nowhere and disappeared. No one heard from her for decades. There were stories though; stories that she meet a young man, the description sounded a lot like you though. Tall. Built. More morale’s then sense. He must have been one hell of a guy for her to leave everything for.”  
“Tony I can’t” He looked heartbroken, he couldn’t look me in the eye. “She said that you’d say that and that there was only one thing I could say to change that.” I waited till he looked me in the eye. “This is my dying wish Capt, I couldn’t let go but you still can. Promise me Capt. Promise me!” I could see that he still wanted to argue. “You’re not going to break a dying man’s last wish, are you Capt?” I had him, I knew I did. “You’re a great man Tony, it’s been an honour” He took my arm, we both knew what this was. Goodbye Captain. 

Silence prevailed, an army surrounded us, but it seemed like everyone feared making the slightest noise. It started quiet. A mere whistle on the landscape that built gradually, until it felt like an overwhelming roar. You could hear it well before you could see it. What was that? I’ve never been a religious man, but I’d be lying if I said the thought that it could be God or worse, the other guy. The target was clear though, as it came closer and closer everyone moved to surround me. To create a blockade with just me and Pepper on the inside. I couldn’t see what or as I was about to find out, who it was. I could hear the bang of them landing though, whoever it was didn’t seem worried about creating a scene or getting their head blown of by the God of Thunder.

“Identify yourself” Thor boomed, in the way that only he can.

“I come in peace, with only the wish to say my pay my respect and say my goodbyes.” The new voice issued.  
Years later, no one could say why they moved or what made them trust this new figure, only that they knew they could. They parted without hesitation and revealed to me a beautiful young lady, no older than 20 but wearing a suit that was both familiar to me and not. She approached me slowly, her shoulder length brown hair moving with the wind and when she finally reached me, bent down and whispered the two words that I thought I would never get to hear again.

“Hi Dad”

You could hear a pin drop; the silence was so deafening. Mirroring my actions with Pepper minutes before, I reached my hand up to her cheek, taking in every detail I could “Morgan?”  
“Yer Dad, thought I’d pop by and say hello” And there it was, that little smirk. The one I’d seen on too many magazine covers to name. “You’re so beautiful” and she was, the perfect mix of me and Pepper. “What can I say, I had one hell of a gene pool” and there it was again, that little smirk that looks so arrogant on me but looks so cheeky on her.

“But you can’t be here hunny, your messing with things you don’t understand” 

“Some things are meant to be and me being here is one of them.” She said turning to look at Pepper. “Don’t worry though, it’s only a short visit. You see, my mum always told me this story about my Dad at bedtime. The most amazing man, who told her time and time again about a he promise he made to her………. his little girl wasn’t going to have the childhood that he had. He wasn’t going to leave her alone”  
I could feel everyone tense around me. I couldn’t take it anymore. My heart froze, I’d done it. I’d broken my promise, I’d left her alone. Tears started to well in my eyes, the pain becoming unbearable.  
“No Dad, you misunderstand. Mum sent me because she couldn’t bare the thought of you leaving us thinking you’d let us down”

“But I have, I have! Baby, look at me, there’s no way I’m surviving this. I’m sorry, I’m so sorry!” Tears started appearing on those rose-tinted cheeks. I was getting frantic now, she needed to know how sorry I am, how much I loved her. 

“You’re wrong Dad, look around you” She motioned to the avengers surrounding us. “You did what your father was never able to do. You build the ultimate creation and you did it for me.” She was talking faster now, as if begging me to understand.

“Dad, you built me a family......” 

It was like all my energy drained from me at those words. “Your happy?” I couldn’t help but ask. The cutest little smile appeared on her face “Very!, you didn’t fail me Dad. If anything, it was the opposite” she chuckled.  
I didn’t understand. She must have seen the confusion on my face “Well honestly, could you not have chosen regular people? I mean, do you have any idea how difficult it is to get a date to prom when anytime a boy comes over, whether it’s for studying or not, Hawkeye feels the need to play target practice with real life looking targets in the yard.”  
Everyone was smiling now, you could see the relief, but I couldn’t take my eyes off my little girl “or how about my first date when Thor decides to describe in great detail the century’s old tradition for the Asgardian people to fight to the death when courting a young lady as a right of honour” 

“Is that true?” I asked as I looked to Thor. It was obvious it wasn’t, the confusion was plain to see. It was like seeing a light bulb started flashing above his head. Looks like Loki did have a small impact at least.

“No wait! how about the time when Bruce pretended to revert fully to the Hulk and ran round the house screaming “Hulk SMASH!” and terrifying a poor kid because he thought the kid had been mean to me?”  
Everyone was trying not to laugh, Morgan included. You could see the joy on her face, she can say as much as she wants that these events were annoying, but the fondness was clear on her face.

“How was prom?” I didn’t have long left. It was starting to get harder and harder to concentrate.

“Oh Dad” she said with pity on her face. “I didn’t go to prom”

“What, but you mentioned….”

Rolling her eyes she said “I was joking Dad! ….I graduated MIT when I was 15, I didn’t have time for prom!” 

Beautiful. Smart. Funny. I turned to Pepper “We’ve done good, Potts” 

“We sure did Tony” 

The world was fading fast, this was it. This was my time.

The last words I could pick out felt like they were shining like a beacon in front of my face.

“I love you 3000 Dad”


End file.
